How Two Wyndemere Residents Discovered That the Best Chapter of Life Isn’t One You Plan.
A Practical Decision
Nobody moves to a Life Plan Community expecting to fall in love.
Doug Nagy moved to Wyndemere in the summer of 2022 after losing his wife, Kathy. It was a practical decision, made in a hard season – the two of them had already looked at the community together, and Doug decided to honor their decision and move in.
Barb Hammond arrived about a month and a half later, looking for something equally straightforward: a safe place to downsize, a smart plan for the future. Her mother lived at Wyndemere until age 102, so she was confident she would likewise thrive there. She was also still working full-time as a CFO, her company had relocated to Wheaton specifically to keep her, and she wasn’t looking for a social transformation.
Both moved for practical reasons, neither looking for romance.
They found each other anyway.
“I thought I got a really nice townhome. It turned out I got a wonderful community to go along with it.” – Barb Hammond
The Bio, the Dinner, and the Bet
When new residents move to Wyndemere, they’re invited to write a short bio. Everyone provides a little snapshot of who they are, where they’ve been, what they love. Barb’s bio caught Doug’s attention almost immediately.
He mentioned it to his daughter, who told him to reach out to her. Doug didn’t need much convincing.
Doug is an ambassador for the community – someone who greets new residents, invites them to dinner, helps them find their footing. So he did what came naturally. He called Barb and extended an invitation to dinner, with a couple of other residents along to keep things comfortable. “Just in case you think I’m an axe murderer,” as Barb remembers the offer, “so you’ll feel safe.”
She accepted. The dinner went well. A friendship took shape. A golf outing followed not long after. On the first tee, Barb suggested a bet. The prize was dinner. They tied the front nine. Doug won the back.
“One thing led to another,” Doug says. “We found out how much we had in common.”
What They Found in Common
The list, it turns out, is substantial.
They both love golf. Doug was a single-digit handicap for years before his knees had other opinions, and Barb continuously proves she can hold her own on the links. They bowl. They play pool. They followed curling at the Winter Olympics with genuine investment. And most evenings, they play a card game called Sequence with a competitive intensity that shows no signs of letting up.
Beyond the games, there’s a whole life they’re sharing together. They go to restaurants together every month and to plays and shows, including Hamilton in Chicago. They’ve traveled. Barb has been welcomed into Doug’s children and grandchildren. “They’ve been kind enough to make me feel like I’m part of the family,” she says. “It’s just a joy for me.”
Barb came to Wyndemere as a self-described introvert who wasn’t planning on meeting many people. She didn’t have children of her own, and her goal was simply to be in a place where she’d be cared for and wouldn’t be a burden to anyone. What happened instead was this: Doug called early on and invited her to come see the dining room, meet some neighbors, and get a feel for the community. He introduced her to people. He included her. And because he did, she found her way into a life here that she never anticipated.
What They’ve Built Here
With a laugh, Doug and Barb joke that they are Wyndemere’s poster children. It’s true; they are. But it’s not strictly because of their relationship. It’s because of how deeply they’ve woven themselves into the fabric of the community.
Doug is “an instigator, in the best possible sense of the word,” according to Barb. When the entertainment at WyndBar needed updating, he jumped right in. He recruited an instructor and organized a new line dancing program that already has 38 residents signed up. He’s a steady presence at Wyndemere’s grief support group, where his humor has a way of reminding people still in pain that laughter hasn’t left them. And as a community ambassador, he’s helped countless new residents find their footing the same way neighbors once helped him find his.
Barb’s contributions run just as deep. When bocce was struggling to keep 16 players engaged – partly because organizing matches required a tangle of phone calls nobody wanted to make – Barb, a technology executive, built a custom scheduling app that handled everything automatically. Participation grew from 16 people to 80 in two and a half years. She even serves as Vice President of the Resident Council, overseeing programming and the activities budget.
She didn’t set out to transform bocce or make any real impact in the community. She just saw a problem she knew how to solve and felt welcomed enough to do it.
“Sometimes when you move into a retirement community, it feels like you’re done – done playing, done traveling, and done having fun. But it’s been the reverse for me.” – Barb Hammond
The Surprise They Didn’t See Coming
Both Doug and Barb are candid about what they expected from this chapter of life and how far the reality has exceeded it.
Doug knew he was a people person and figured he’d find his footing. What he didn’t anticipate was how rich the community would feel, how many friendships he’d make, how full the calendar would be, or how much there’d be to do and contribute. He once heard a resident tell a room full of prospective neighbors: If you can’t find something to do here every day, it’s your own fault. Doug thought about that and decided the man was exactly right.
For Barb, every part of this was a surprise. Her company encouraged her to move to Wyndemere, told her to get involved, to travel, and to do whatever she wanted. The work would get done; it always does. A life that active, that connected, that fully in motion simply is not what most people picture when they imagine a Life Plan Community. But it’s exactly the life Barb is living.
There’s also, of course, each other – which neither of them saw coming at all.
“I certainly never expected to meet someone where we’d have a relationship and be able to just thoroughly enjoy our lives together. Meeting Doug has been just such a blessing.”
What Wyndemere Makes Possible
Doug and Barb’s story is their own. But the conditions that made it possible? They’d say that belongs to Wyndemere.
Something extraordinary happens when you put a community of intelligent, curious, energetic people in a setting that genuinely supports them. When maintenance is taken care of, dining is exceptional, health care is close at hand, and the calendar is full of things worth doing, people stop managing the logistics of living and start really living. They have time to show up for each other. They have the energy to try something new. They find, often to their own surprise, that the people around them are exactly the kind of people they want to know.
Our resident-led clubs, committees, and programs mean that life here is shaped by the people who live it. Not handed down, but grown from the ground up. Barb didn’t just join bocce; she rebuilt it. Doug didn’t just attend WyndBar; he helped make it worth attending. The community gave them the platform, and they ran with it.
That’s the thing about Wyndemere that’s hardest to put in a brochure. It isn’t just what’s here. It’s what becomes possible once you are.
“The community is going to show you that the fun is here – if you allow the community to get into your heart.” – Barb Hammond
See What Your Future Could Hold
Curious about what life at Wyndemere could look like for you? We’d love to show you. Contact us today to schedule your visit or to learn more.
